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Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

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Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#81

Post by gretch »

anikom15 wrote: post #69
iambateman wrote: post #14

The fun part of Amazon Smile was that it let customers decide how they wanted to change the world…but now they’ve decided they - Amazon - know better, thank you very much. This is surprisingly honest for corporatespeak and I think reflects the god-complex which tends to follow people who spend a lot of time taking in billions of dollars. The reality is there were a lot of charities - maybe even most of them - who wer…

Honest? Why should we believe all of the Amazon smile purchases will continue and contribute to charity? If the program is getting scrapped, are we to believe Amazon is going to send 0.5% of everyone’s purchases to charity? This is an attempt to recover revenue, nothing more.

Just look at other companies.

Here's Meta as an example https://about.meta.com/giving-together/

They gave $7B to all sorts of random stuff like cat shelters

Pretty much every company has some stuff like this. Don't you see think it'd be weird if Amazon was the 1 company that doesnt?

Edit: Better article here that distinguishes between Meta's matching and donation from meta users https://about.fb.com/news/2022/11/fundraise-for-nonprofits-g....

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#82

Post by spullara »

Hmm. I always though smile.amazon.com was mostly to dodge having to pay affiliates by switching the domain and losing the cookies. I did donate a couple hundred bucks through it though :(

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#83

Post by culi »

laverya wrote: post #78
vwcx wrote: post #24

It's amazing to look at the AmazonSmile form 990. It's a 2000 page pdf with a list of every charity that received a donation along with the amount: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/46262...

[flagged]

they could've simply made an ethics committee and removed certain options while still giving users some choice...

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#84

Post by shepherdjerred »

nickthegreek wrote: post #72
shepherdjerred wrote: post #43

While it's sad to see this program close, I feel like backlash isn't the answer. How are companies supposed to create beneficial programs like this if they know they're expected to keep it forever?

For one, they can afford it. Two, it factors into my decision on the value of Prime to me as a consumer. Prime also offers me the ability to sub to a twitch steamer for free every week. That puts real money in creators pockets. YouTube Premium gives creators more cash when I visit than a free user. I enjoy using services that allow me to give back to creators.

I'm not talking about Amazon Smile specifically. I'm saying that if this is how people react every time a charitable program is closed/modified, then companies have less of an incentive to have these kinds of charities in the first place.

A company is essentially having to make a permanent, immutable financial commitment lest they face backlash.

Yes, Amazon has the money to continue this program. Yes, I think they should keep it around. No, I don't think it makes sense for people to go bonkers over it ending.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#85

Post by culi »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #80
laverya wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Honest question: why would tech companies oppose those charities in particular?

One of the primary strategies activists have managed to successfully deploy against those groups is through targeting advertisers. Also most tech workers are college educated which is a demographic that (increasingly) supports gun control/does not like the NRA

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#86

Post by shepherdjerred »

dylan604 wrote: post #60
shepherdjerred wrote: post #43

While it's sad to see this program close, I feel like backlash isn't the answer. How are companies supposed to create beneficial programs like this if they know they're expected to keep it forever?

By starting a program and saying "for the next x amount of time, this is what we're doing".

That's not a bad idea. I wonder if companies do this today.

I expect cynical HN commenters would make the similarly snarky comments about how X company is only committing to Y time period.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#88

Post by shepherdjerred »

FroshKiller wrote: post #66
shepherdjerred wrote: post #43

While it's sad to see this program close, I feel like backlash isn't the answer. How are companies supposed to create beneficial programs like this if they know they're expected to keep it forever?

They seem pretty committed to pursuing profit forever. I would simply make it a part of my mission and have the integrity to stick to it.

Every company, even the "good" ones, are committed to pursuing profit, at least to some extent. That's the _entire_ point of a company.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#89

Post by indrora »

atomicnumber3 wrote: post #30
kelnos wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the average, sure, but since Amazon allows each customer to pick a charity, I imagine some charities got a lot more, and some a lot less. According to my account page, I've generated $100.71 for the charity I selected, and, overall, they've received $273.64 as a part of the program. So I guess the charity I selected wasn't all that popular. But I expect other, more mainstream charities, were.

The FSF has received almost 35k. That's not bad imo.

Amazon (via Smile) and Microsoft (via employee donations) are probably the two biggest funding sources for the FSF.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#90

Post by anikom15 »

I sent an email to amazon-ir@amazon.com stating that I will cancel my Prime account, Business account, and credit card on February 20th. It’s annoying having to go to different sites for goods, but I think I can manage.

The charity I contributed to got the email and won’t be using Amazon as a vendor any longer.

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